Should Trump Be Disqualified from Running?

A Primer on the Law and Decisions So Far

It’s a debate you’ll see raging on television and op-ed pages: should Trump be disqualified for running for the presidency because of his role in January 6?

And if so, how does that even work? Who makes the decision? And when?

With challenges being filed in several states, courts are beginning to look at the question. And while no court has yet ruled that he should be disqualified, they’ve rejected the argument for different reasons, leading to various implications.

Believe it or not, the entire question may come down to whether or not the President is considered to be an “officer” of the United States. Trump’s lawyers argue that he’s not. And if one court decision that’s been made holds—that the President is not technically an officer of the United States—then that would lead to the conclusion that the President and the Vice President are the only officials who can engage in an insurrection and still be allowed to run for office in the future.

Say what?

For this VOTING RIGHTS ACADEMY class, we’ll review the argument for disqualification, the rulings that have so far rejected it, why, and what’s next?

Read on…

The Argument: A Self-Executing Clause of the XIV Amendment

So how do we assess the argument that Trump is barred from running? Is it idle political fancy or real law?